Pine Mountain Lake (PML) is a private gated community and a census-designated place (CDP) in Tuolumne County, California. It is located north and east of Groveland. Pine Mountain Lake sits at an elevation of . The 2010 United States census reported Pine Mountain Lake's population was 2,796. The ZIP Code is 95321. The community is inside area code 209. The "Gateway to Yosemite", PML is an all-seasons vacation and retirement community. PML includes a private lake with of shoreline. The community also hosts an 18-hole championship golf course, golf shop, lake lodge, tennis, hiking, horseback riding, swimming, fishing, an airport, and close proximity to local shopping, medical, and government services. PML is west of Yosemite National Park on State Highway 120. It gets a light dusting of snow in the winter, and has warm summer days, a green spring, and colorful fall. About The community of Big Oak Flat was founded by James D. Savage, who began mining the area about 1851. In "Discovery of the Yosemite and the Indian War of 1851 which led to that event" by Lafayette Bunnell, Savage is credited as the leader of the first group of non-Native Americans of European ancestry into Yosemite Valley, on March 27, 1851. Others of European ancestry may have seen the valley as early as 1833. From approximately 1916 to 1924, Big Oak Flat served as a staging area and housing location for workers constructing the Hetch Hetchy Railroad which was required to build the O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River in the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Big Oak Flat is now registered as California Historical Landmark #406. The lake is spring-fed and is also fed by Big Creek. It has of water and of shoreline. It affords water skiing, sailing, swimming and fishing. It has two sandy swim beaches, a boat launch marina and a fisherman's park. Pine Mountain Lake Association stocks the lake with trout. The lake is surrounded by pines and manzanitas, and most homes cannot be seen from the lake, preserving its wilderness feeling. The Pine Mountain Lake subdivision was developed by Boise Cascade in the late 1960s with about 3,600 homesites averaging about one third to one half of an acre each. PML offers an equestrian center, tennis, a PGA rated golf course with a full-time golf pro, a "country club," and full-time mobile security patrol. The lake is about feet above mean sea level.